


cause only you know what it does to me

by orphan_account



Series: edling week 2018 [3]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Edling Week 2018, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Minor Violence, Power Couple, god im so sleep deprived
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 19:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14960927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: edward elric is a superhero.so is his boyfriend.apparently, that doesn't tide over well with the universe(edling week day 3: superhero au)





	cause only you know what it does to me

Games were stupid. 

 

But, they were even stupider when the same flashy ass bastard kept luring you into them every single night without your boyfriend to come and help you. 

 

Stupid English majors and their dumb homework assignments. 

 

“Can we get this over with?”, Edward asks, dodging a punch from the 4th villain he’s fought that night. “I made bagel bites in my dorm kitchen and they’re probably getting cold by now.” His hood doesn’t even move with the effort it takes to dodge these horrible hits. He grabs the man’s wrist and flips him over on his back. His fingers scrabble uselessly at the steel toe of Edward’s boots, now pressed into his neck. 

 

“You’ll never beat me, Fullmetal!”, he exclaims. Edward rolls his eyes and presses down just a bit more. 

 

“It’s astounding, really. Usually, it takes people 4 to 5 minutes to lose consciousness if sufficient pressure is applied to their main place of air intake.” Ed leans on his knee, staring down at the criminal pinned under his foot. His mask is a half-and-half of a sock and buskin mask, the mouths turning in different directions. It’s cracked and scuffed in the places Ed’s punched him though, ruining its previously glossy finish. 

 

“Let’s see how much I can get out of you before you pass out.”, he growls. The man under him whimpers, and Edward almost feels bad. This is most likely a middle-aged man, one with a family and a job, and he’s getting his ass beat and lectured by a college student. Poor guy, really. 

 

The dude starts laughing like he’s lost it, which is never a good thing when you fight wackjobs like this one on a daily basis. There’s a flash of metal in the moonlight poised in his hand, then the knife sinks into Edward’s leg.

 

Or at least that’s what was supposed to happen. 

 

Instead, the knife comically bends against Ed’s steel prosthetic until it resembles a cookie cutter more than anything. 

 

“C’mon, man!” Edward holds up his leg, a sizeable gash ripping through the fabric of his suit. “This is the 5th time this week that one of you idiots has ripped my suit! A guy can only buy so much red thread from the craft store before people start to get suspicious!” He groans and lowers his leg. “Jeez, you would think for the number of people that try to stab me and find a prosthetic, y’all would be smart enough to tell everyone about my metal leg!”

 

Ed rears back and kicks the man square in the chest. He goes down with a wet noise of pain. 

 

“Good.” Edward tugs his hood over his head and adjusts his mask over his face from where its slipped. If this guy regains consciousness, the last thing he needs is some petty villain sending him death threats in his college mail system, which means they’ll most likely be a few weeks late by the time Ed gets them. 

 

Now, to drop this dude off to the police and get back to his bagel bites. Hopefully, by now, they’re still in the microwave when he gets back.

 

-

 

Sleep is hell for Ed. He has to sleep around bruised ribs, getting up every now and then to ice them and relieve the pain. 

 

His suit is thrown haphazardly into the back of his closet, its red and black color thankfully mingling with the red of his wardrobe in a way that wouldn’t raise any eyebrows. The gash in his leg is achingly huge, stretching from the start of his calf down to his ankle. Had it been his other leg, Edward would be bleeding out onto his duvet within minutes. 

 

But in all honesty, he’d rather be stitched up in a hospital bed than staying up until 3 in the morning trying to work out a topic for his thesis paper. Professor Hawkeye is a stickler for the specifics, which is exactly why the size of her class dwindles every year. Edward’s barely made it through each semester, scraping something out by the skin of his teeth. Hawkeye always says he’s too analytical in his essays, that he needs to live in the moment of being a college student and have more passion in his work. 

 

Right, because student loans and declining mental health were something to get excited about. 

 

Edward’s already lucky that he’s one of the few kids who gets a single dorm room instead of having a roommate, but that’s only because people complain when their roommate wakes up without certain appendages and has to hobble around the room on crutches or walk weirdly until he can find his other arm. Either that, or no one else can handle his insomniatic tendencies towards the start of exam week. They always complain about the same things; leaving at early hours of the day and not coming back until later, using the microwave all the time, constantly sewing and fighting and doing stuff that just weirds everyone else out all the time. 

 

It probably has something to do with the fact that he’s on the meal plan. Ed told Counselor Hughes that he didn’t mind having to get special meals from the school, but apparently, when all of your peers wipe their asses with dollar bills, it’s a big deal. 

 

Vigilantism, or heroics as others call it, is his only escape from all this. No one cares about the scrawny little kid fighting his way through life one homework assignment at a time, but Fullmetal was someone they all loved, someone they adored. The kid behind the hood and the mask was someone they’d build shrines to. He was a hero to the people, an enemy to the police, and an enigma to them both. There were fansites practically dedicated to unmasking him, running the sliver of skin peeking out of his costume through thousands of online databases to get a pinpoint of his racial background, therefore getting a better hold on who he was as a person. None of the villains had gotten it out to the public that he had a prosthetic, no one even knew he had two. All the news stations thought it was some type of robot arm, not one of his online theorists wanted to think that he wasn’t able-bodied. If that information got out to the public, the internet would probably explode. 

 

He looks towards the heap of red fabric and leather in his closet. Maybe he’ll make the internet explode.

 

Edward takes out the red thread in his drawer, a pair of scissors, and gets to work. Sleep can be for another night.

* * *

 

“You’re looking a lot fancier than usual, Fullmetal.”, Jiù Zhǔ, comments, taking in the adjustments to Edward’s suit. The sleeves covering his arms are gone, exposing both his arms to the chilly night air. His hood is now connected to his suit, the remaining fabric coming down in a v-shape that ends right above his belly button. “Special occasion?”, he circles Edward like a vulture, smiling.

 

Ed blushes, tugging his mask up to hide his reddening face. “I just got rid of the unnecessary stuff.” He flexes his hand in its new glove, his bicep straining against the fabric. “Y’know, take some artistic liberties and all that.”

 

Jiù Zhǔ smiles, twining a piece of hair around his fingers. “You look nice.” His own golden suit glistens in the moonlight as his arms move to put his hair up in a ponytail. “Almost as good as me, but it can’t be helped.”

 

“Could do without the titty window, though.”, Ed deadpans, gesturing to where Jiù Zhǔ’s shirt is so loosely tucked into his pants to the point where his entire chest pokes out. “That’s, like, asking someone to stab you. Don’t your nipples ever get cold, Ling?”

 

Ling shushes Ed dramatically, placing his hand over Ed’s mask. “Hush, darling, don’t call me by my civilian name! And for your information, my nipples are  _ fine,  _ thank you!” He gives Ed a kiss right where his mouth would be, making his boyfriend turn the same shade as his suit. 

 

“Alright, babe.”, he says, clearing his throat. “Let’s go be heroes.” 

 

They jump off the roof they’ve been talking on, hair and hoods billowing in the wind. 

 

* * *

 

Fullmetal and Jiù Zhǔ were Central City’s best heroes, renowned for their perfect teamwork and constant flirting in between battles. They’ve fought petty criminals; bank robbers, wannabe terrorists and the like. 

 

But they’ve never been prepared for people with guns. You’d think they’d be used to it though, tough guys coming into a room and waving around a shotgun like they own the place. Those guys are easy to disarm, a swift hit to the neck was usually enough to send them to the ground.

 

They’ve handled the idea of guns, but being physically near one, it was enough to make Edward sick. 

 

That’s what they’re doing now, handling a hostage situation the day before their semester ends.

 

“Ling, Ling, we’ve gotta get everyone out of here.”, Edward whispers, pulling his boyfriend close. He’d always loved how Ling’s mask complimented his skin tone, the deep gold going perfectly with his black hair. It’s stained with blood and ripped down one side from where one of the kidnappers got him across the face. It’ll scar, but he’s lucky it wasn’t a millimeter closer to his eye. He and Ed will match though, his scar mirroring the one Ed has from their first year as heroes. 

 

“I know, love, I know. But it’s too hard to get close to anyone without drawing attention. We’ll get through this, just trust me.” Ling places his forehead on Edward’s and breathes deeply. His beautiful golden hair is matted with sweat and blood and stress, he wishes he could take Ed away from all this and keep him safe. “Make sure your arm’s okay.”, he warns. 

 

Ed looks to where his arm is nearly falling out of its socket. Without it, he’ll be depending a lot more on keeping his balance and his legs, since he’s never had to fight with just one arm. “I’ll be fine, idiot. Worry about your dumb face.”

 

The police wait outside, ambulances drowning out the frightened screams of the civilians trapped inside. 

 

“We didn’t want to make a big deal out of this.”, the robber says. He waves his gun around with a sort of lazy, nonchalant attitude, like he had better Sunday plans but was coerced into robbing a bank. “But then you two primary colored bozos had to show up and make payday hard.”

 

“Alright, we’ll try and get him off guard.”, Ling whispers. “If you can get him, I’ll try and get as many people as I can out to Officer Mustang and the others.”

 

Edward’s mouth curls a little, but he nods. “Tell that old bastard thanks when we get out of this.”

 

Edward and Ling falter when he points the gun at a little girl hunched in the corner. She holds on to her mother’s hand like she’s going to break it off, then bursts into tears as she stares down the barrel of a gun. 

 

“Oh, shut the fuck up!” Edward rushes the guy, tackling him to the floor. A shot rings out, cutting a hole through the ceiling. “God, if I have to hear you run your goddamn mouth one for time, I’m going to punch a tooth out for every person in the building fearing for their life!”

 

Ling starts picking up children and rushing them outside, adults following them out in tears. The officers waiting outside usher the victims into shock blankets and start talking them down from their breakdowns.

 

A bullet whizzes out the door, and Ling catches it just an inch away from Mustang’s face. 

 

“Thanks.”, the officer says gruffly. “Forgot you had that whole, uh, reflex thing.”

 

Ling smiles weakly. “No problem. They really do come in handy in times like these.”

 

“Someone’s coming out!”, a man yells. “It’s Fullmetal, and he’s got the guy over his shoulders!”

 

Ling rushes back into the bank, hands immediately fluttering at Ed’s side. “Oh god, Ed, you’re bleeding.” His fingers press against the steadily growing stain on Edward’s suit, blood wetting the torn fabric and making it stick to his side/. “C’mon, you gotta sit down.”

 

Ed nods weakly, and he drops the robber at the foot of several shocked policemen. The robber’s face is swollen beyond recognition, and he’s covered in various cuts and bruises. 

 

“What did you do to him, Ed?”, Ling says softly. Edward mutters something incoherent and pressed his forehead against Ling’s shoulder. “God, you’re gonna get arrested for excessive force again.”   
  


Two first responders take Ed out of Ling’s arms, which leaves him slightly reaching out for him.

 

“We’ll take good care of Fullmetal.” Mustang says, resting a hand on Ling’s shoulder. “You can go see him once he gets stitched up.”

 

Ling nods, but ends up migrating to the ambulance where they’re keeping Edward. The graze on his side isn’t major, but the bullet did dig deep enough that it requires a few, quick stitches. They let him in as soon at the last stitch has been cut, and Ling sits there for minutes, maybe hours , holding Edward’s clammy hand in his own, muttering prayer after prayer until they all blur together. 

 

“Ling..”, Ed mutters, sitting up in his makeshift bed. “You’re squeezing my hand too tight.”

Ling sighs with relief, kissing Ed’s hands as he cries. “You dumbass, you just had to go and get shot. I get worried about you sometimes, you know! Having advanced thinking doesn’t mean you can take on some idiot with a gun, good lord, you’re going to make me go gray!”

 

Edward laughs, wincing when it stretches the fresh stitches at his side. “You know we’re gonna have to go public after this, right? You and that scar is already a fun story, but I’ve got to wait until these stitches heal before I go back to school. Plus. my arm’s complete shit.” He gestures to the mangled mess of metal hanging from his side. 

 

“I’m just glad we can claim student benefits on all your hospital visits, now.” Ling says breathlessly, pressing a kiss to Edward’s cheek. 

 

Ed turns and catches him on the lips. “Fuck student benefits. All I need is you watching my ass, and I should be fine.”

 

He brushes a blooming bruise on the curve of Ling’s jaw, and kisses him properly. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> GOOD LORDY JESUS THIS IS SO LATE im so sorry BUT yall can blame the fab 5 from netflixs queer eye because i wasted so much time on all 16 episodes ill apologize for any emotional pain yall have


End file.
